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IIRC the changeover is merely to over-the-air broadcasts, and would be of DTV and not necessarily HDTV. In other words, providers could digitally broadcast standard-definition (480i) signals if they chose to do so, which would be better than analog 480i, but it's definitely not high definition (720p, 1080i/p). They would do this so they can broadcast more standard definition signals on the same allocation of bandwidth that they would otherwise use up with one HD signal.

I'll admit I didn't finish reading all the responses (I will - this subject has particular interest to me) but after plowing through ca 100 posts w/o any actual real World experience, I had to pipe up:

Slashdotters should realize that a decent (not great) PC with some free software and inexpensive hardware can be the key to nearly State-of-the-art (compared to the stuff in the retail chains) TV exceeding kilobuck HDTV sets. A spectacular home theater is within the reach of a dedicated high school fry cook working at McDonalds and living with their folks. In fact, get your folks to chip in, and it's *easy*. In Home Improvement, we call it "sweat equity": creating with work and know-how something that would cost mucho dinero to buy (plus learning a thing or two as a major benefit -- I can easily afford an HDTV at Best Buy, but that would be boring to me, or even pointless)

1) Some starting points for real-world solutions:
AV Science: where I hang out now (esp. the HTPC forum, whose Linux section could use more programmers!)
Keohi HDTV (they helped me get started, I assume they're still good)
The Home Theater Spot: Admittedly, a home for guys with more dollars than sense, but at least they experiment instead of spouting sales literature at each other. They also had some great group buys from One-Call, which is as good as it gets for both support and service (if you want to buy)

2) Only now am I retiring my original HTPC (Home Theater PC), a Celeron-466 with 256 MB, a $20 TV card, and a $45 Matrox 450 DualHead with s-video, composite and XVGA outputs - a simple system that would still wow a lot of 'retail buyers'. I can't explain how it changed my TV viewing, how great it is to have a library of 150-300MB archived eps of my favorite shows, etc. Add a few sub-$1/GB HDDs (see Anandtech Hot Deals or FatWallet for bargains), and you'll wonder how you ever tolerated clumsy VHS tape libraries. For archiving, these same forums will tell you how to get 4x DVD-R recorders for as little as $140 at major chains (epending on sales)

3) My current aging workhorse is a Athlon 1700+XP ($209, barebones, from Outpost.com a year ago). I added memory, a sub-$300 MyHD card (some other HDTV cards are as good or better) and a few minor bits like a $50 Dolby Theater Sound card, etc. It'd be much cheaper today, and many of you already run gear that's much hotter than this. The software was mostly free and/or open source.

4) My favored output device is a Toshiba TLP650 LCD projector (native 1024x768, but with a nice 1600x1200 mode) cost $900 on eBay last year - a bit pricey, but that was last year and the last-gen prices are dropping fast. On President's Day (Monday) I got my GF a nice 640x480 projector to experiment with: under $100, and it exceeds the line resolution of any 'normal TV'. You can assemble a decent HTPC/projector for about the price of a "pretty nice" normal TV if cash is tight, and you'll have far more capability, like HDTV and HDTV *recording* (which runs a few kilobucks by itself, retail). Admittedly, I'm comparing "MSRP" TV prices to bargain-hunting for HDTV, but hackers have always been scroungers, right?

To me, the learning is the biggest benefit. I'm not a big fan of most TV, but building my HTPC has been a wonderful (and not *that* pricey) hobby. I don't need cable when most of what is sold locally as "digital cable" doesn't come close to the 1080i resolution I pick up with a $20 "double bowtie" antenna from Radio Shack (As a general rule, any antenna that calls itself an HDTV antenna will be *worse* than a cheap 1950's retro-looking double bowtie)

When your videos are always on your HDD, you'll rule in Geek Debates on SF tech or plots (one-click access encourages the invaluable habit of rigorous fact-checking). You can make outrageous SF music videos or parodies, and otherwise exercise your creative and intellectual side instead of being purely a passive couch potato. Modesty prevents me from linking my own videos, but I'd gladly recommend a friend's site of example TV-SF music videos and parodies

Here's a little blurb discussing the differences if anyone's interested

Article

If I needed one, I'd get one like this . It is remote controlled so I could set up my ProntoPro's macros to switch to the proper video source.

What about a normal RGB plug for a monitor. That way you set the computer to always put out a 1280x720 (at something like 60hz I think) signal (in HDTV a 720p, found here) and build an RGB to component converter (basic one).
That way if you get a big screen that can handle a computer or component in you can just plug the RGB cable in, or if it just HDTV component only you plug that in. Although a DVI would be nice as it can offer both analog and digital signals on the same cable and you can disect for the necessar signals as needed. (Ok, just buy a DVI plug to 15-pin dsub plug thing and work from there).

Unfortunately the signal from my geforce to toshiba cinema series hdtv is s-video so it's not as purty as it could be. DVD's look fantastic with the colorstream connection. I've found vga to colorstream cables for as little as $100, but haven't been able to afford it recently (the hdtv's a long story). I'd attempt this if it would give me 1080i

As for my set's obsolesence? I get my tv shows off the net anyway- the set is for games and dvd's

If you use something like dscaler to watch TV and combine that with a window resizing program that can stretch windows off-screen like YxY, then it would be trivial to stretch the image back to the right proportion and then put the "ad-bar" off the bottom of the screen. If you don't watch TV on your computer you are probably SOL, but lots of people have got them hooked up to their projection systems and HDTV sets. This is an MS-Windows based solution though....

dscaler
YxY

(you might not even need YxY with the more recent versions of dscaler).

Frequently-asked questions:
http://www.avsforum.com/hdtvfaq/HDTV-FAQ.htm
http://www.nwlink.com/~rxg/hdtv.html

Reviews, tips, tweaks, etc:
http://www.hometheaterspot.com
http://www.avsforum.com
http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/index.htm